Marshall Flight Center Official Leaving
Posted on: Tuesday, 20 May 2003, 06:00 CDT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- The head of the NASA center responsible for the space shuttle fuel tank that has come under suspicion in the Columbia disaster announced Tuesday that he is stepping down.
Arthur G. Stephenson, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center since 1998, said his departure was not connected to any problems at the center.
Stephenson, 60, will leave as Marshall director on June 15 and said he will assume an educational position within NASA until he retires in January. No immediate replacement was named.
The shuttle fleet is grounded as investigators try to pinpoint why Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on Feb. 1, killing all seven astronauts.
"With NASA preparing to implement a comprehensive 'Return to Flight' effort, I felt the timing for this move is in the best interest of the agency, Marshall and me, personally," Stephenson said in a statement.
Marshall, one of NASA's largest installations with more than 6,500 workers, oversees the shuttle's main engines, booster rockets and huge, rust-colored external fuel tank. Investigators suspect that foam insulation ripped away from the 154-foot tank during liftoff and damaged the shuttle's left wing, allowing hot gases to penetrate during re-entry.
In a February interview, Stephenson said engineers "got comfortable" with foam falling off during shuttle launches and never suspected the problem was a safety threat.
In 1986, Marshall director William Lucas retired after the Challenger disaster. Marshall was in charge of the flawed solid rocket booster that doomed Challenger during liftoff.
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